Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues officially funded, stretch goals target pet system and seasonal weather

Richard Garriott's return to the RPG genre is off to a good start, with Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues having reached its Kickstarter goal of $1 million in less than 11 days. Since launching on March 8, the project has been backed by more than 14,800 people anxious to see Garriott work his magic.

Now that the project has officially been funded, Garriott and his Austin-based developer studio Portalarium have announced the first stretch goals for Shroud of the Avatar, an in-game pet system and seasonal weather. At $1.1 million, the team plans to add both social and combat pets into the game's design. At $1.2 million, weather systems will be added.

“We are thrilled but also gratified with what we are seeing from the fans backing Shroud of the Avatar,” said Garriott. “My goal is to create an RPG style of gameplay that harkens back to my earlier game development with the Ultima series. If you liked those games which included fully interactive virtual worlds, ethical parables and deep original fiction, then you are going to truly enjoy this new experience. Our team is super excited to be able to use all the current day state-of-the-art tools to really reinvent the fantasy RPG genre."

Last week, it was announced that Tracy Hickman, New York Times' best-selling author of the Dragonlance and Deathgate series, would be joining the team as lead story designer on Shroud of the Avatar. As one of the all-time great fantasy novelists, I'm really looking forward to the story he will craft and how it will work with the game's concept of having you discover your own story.

Shroud of the Avatar has been under development for the past six months with a full release planned for 2014. An early alpha version for backers is expected to be out by the end of the year. For more details or to help fund the game, head over to the Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues Kickstarter.